Was a "High Day" Always on a Weekly Sabbath?
December 26, 2004
Hi Bob,
That is a comment that often comes up, but Scripture doesn't define a "high day". The SDA church promotes the understanding you expressed, but it is based entirely on speculation. I haven't found the expression in any Jewish writing. Jews commonly refer to the Feast of Trumpets and Yom Kippur as the "high holy days", but these festivals are more than six months after the Passover season when Jesus was crucified.
Unfortunately, there is not a Jewish commentary on the gospels, so far as I am aware. The expression "high day" is not found in the Old Testament in connection with a Sabbath. The words "high day" are found in Genesis 29:7, but it is a reference to noontime in that passage and not a Sabbath. I am not aware of any authoritative source of information on this. This appears to be one of those things that must be understood by faith.
I believe the term "high day" of John 19:31 was used as a reference to the Sabbaths that began and ended the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the spring and the Feast of Tabernacles in the autumn. These feasts were 7 days and 8 days respectively and the entire set of days were to be reserved as time for the Lord. Most of these days were not Sabbath days, but work days. The Sabbaths that began and ended these festivals were "high days" because (1) they were part of the annual festival when all males were required to go to Jerusalem, but also because (2) the Lord set them aside as holy convocation days. It would be a special day as part of one of the three annual festivals required to be celebrated in Jerusalem, and a "high day" because it was a Sabbath - kodesh mikrah - that occurred only once a year as part of the festival.
I came to this conclusion before reading Batya Ruth Wooten's book Israel's Feasts and Their Fullness, wherein she identifies the "High Sabbath" - a Shalosh Regalim - as being associated with the three annual festivals for which all males were required to visit Jerusalem. p. 186. She does not suggest that the "High Sabbath" occurs when an annual Sabbath falls on a weekly Sabbath. Her writing is the closest to my understanding that I've found, although she doesn't give the detail that I understand.
Sorry I don't have any more information on this.
Jerry
Additional Information
February 17, 2005
When Ellen White made those statements that Jesus died on the sixth day of the week and was resurrected on the morning of the first day of the week, I believe she wrote those words with all the best intentions. But we know by her own admission that she did not have a clear grasp on the sequence of events of the life of Jesus, neither did she have any special revelation regarding these events. Did she write these things when she was not authorized to write them? Perhaps. In AA, Ellen White states that Paul had not been authorized to yield as much to the leaders in Jerusalem as they requested. Here are her words:
“Paul realized that so long as many of the leading members of the church at Jerusalem should continue to cherish prejudice against him, they would work constantly to counteract his influence. He felt that if by any reasonable concession he could win them to the truth he would remove a great obstacle to the success of the gospel in other places. But he was not authorized of God to concede as much as they asked.”{AA 405.1}
If she could identify that Paul was not authorized to go to the Temple as he did with the best of intentions, can we not also conclude that she was not authorized to write things that are contrary to these facts of scripture that are provable even though she had the best of intentions? It is easy to understand that she wrote these things about the sixth day of the week and the morning of the first day because that is all that was known at the time. She did not have the Greek-English and Hebrew-English lexicons and many other tools at her fingertips in her day. She could not do the research that is so relatively easy for us to do today. For whatever reason, God did not lead her to uncover every gem of truth that had been hidden by centuries of corruption by the substitute system of worship. She told us that some of that would be left to us. The task of those who disagree with what I've written is to demonstrate from scripture that I have failed to tell the truth. If my writing is contrary to scripture, then scripture will be the source of correction for my error.
Here is a rewritten section all from scripture.
Those who promote the traditional view of a Friday crucifixion cite John 19:31 as evidence that the first annual Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread coincided with the weekly Sabbath that year resulting in a double Sabbath which is why this is called a high day. A review of the Greek words for this text will reveal whether the meaning of high in this verse derives from the concept of things that overlap or are in some sense doubled. Here is the KJV rendering of this verse.
The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and [that] they might be taken away.
The words in question are part of the parenthetical phrase “for that sabbath was an high day.”The context of all these events of Passion Week is the Feast of Unleavened Bread which begins on the 15th of the month, so the word Sabbath in this verse has an unmistakable application to the first annual Sabbath of the feast. The real question is: does the combination of an annual Sabbath with a weekly Sabbath produce a high day?
There is only one other place in scripture where the words high day occur together (Genesis 29:7), but that verse is talking about an event at noon or high day. This is certainly not a parallel for the words in John 19:31 and provides no help in understanding these words.
What is really needed is to understand how the word high modifies the word day in the Greek. A review of this Greek word should reveal the meaning of the word high, and that should lead to other applications and texts where the word is used. From that it should be possible to understand what is meant by a high day in John 19:31.
The word high is translated from the Greek word μέγας (megas) and appears over 190 times in the New Testament. By a wide margin it is translated to be great or greatest, but it is also translated as loud (32 times), large (2 times), high (2 times), and one time each as strong, to years, and mighty. The two places where it is translated high are John 19:31 and Hebrews 10:21. A look at Hebrews 10:21-22 demonstrates what the translators understood it to mean there.
21 “And [having] an high priest over the house of God; 22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.”[Bold added]
Should we understand this to be a double priest as some encourage us to take John 19:31 to mean a double Sabbath? Of course not. This reference to the high priest simply signifies the chief priest or most important priest in the sanctuary system. There is no hint that there is any kind of overlap or combination that would result in this high priest. This is a reference to the one person who is the most important priest and in this verse it is a reference to Jesus.
There is one other verse where μέγας (megas) is used in connection with a day. John 7:37 states, in the context of the Feast of Tabernacles, that “On the final and greatest day of the feast...”The Greek word for greatest in this verse is μέγας (megas) and the greatest day has exactly the same meaning in this verse as the high day has in John 19:31. It is clear from John 7:37 that the greatest day is the final day of the festival which is one of the annual Sabbaths set out in Leviticus 23:36-39. The first and eighth days of this festival, the days that begin and end the festival, are Sabbaths. There is no hint, not the slightest evidence, that this has anything to do with the weekly Sabbath, but is a reference only to the annual Sabbath that ended the festival. Because the word μέγας (megas) in John 7:37 and 19:31 modifies day in exactly the same way, it obviously has the same meaning in both places. This demonstrates that a high day is not the result of an annual Sabbath coinciding with a weekly Sabbath and the high day of John 19:31 did not result from the combination of an annual Sabbath with a weekly Sabbath, but is merely the first Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
A brief review of some of the principles of the Lord’’s annual festivals might be helpful at this point. The entire festival season, from the first day through the last day, is part of the sacred appointment time (Heb.moedim) of the Lord (Leviticus 23:4) and all of those days are to be observed in honor of Him. The first and last days of the feast are especially important because they are days on which no strenuous work is to be done and the people are to assemble for worship. This implies that work could be done on some of the days during the festival even though there would be many activities going on during those days. But the first and last days are Sabbaths. They are more important than the other days of the festival because the Lord has set them as markers to begin and end the festival season which is sacred to the Lord. Thus, the Sabbath that begins or ends any festival is a high day.
That is all that is meant in John 19:31 by a high day. It is one of the two most important days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread ––in this case, the day that begins the festival season. The day in question in John 19:31 is also the day the Passover meal is eaten. It should be noticed that, according to Leviticus 23, all the Lord’s kodesh mikra (holy convocation) days have exactly the same degree of holiness. The weekly Sabbath is not more holy than the annual Sabbaths. All the days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread from the 15th through the 21st are part of the Lord’’s festival season, but the days that begin and end the festivals are Sabbaths. The high day mentioned in John 19:31 is the annual Sabbath that begins the festival and has nothing to do with the weekly Sabbath. Notice the wording of John 19:31. The pertinent part states “(for that Sabbath day was an high day,)”. It does not say “high Sabbath”. This should tell us that this day in question is not the weekly Sabbath, but is a high day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Another interesting place where μέγας (megas) is found is in Hebrews 4:14 which reads “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast [our] profession.”In this verse the word μέγας (megas) is translated great and the words high priest come from the word ά?χιε?εύς (archiereus). Taken together, do these words mean that Jesus is a double high priest? Of course not. Here Jesus is identified as the greatest or most important high priest. The word μέγας (megas) does not imply a double.
While the high day of John 19:31 is not the day of His death, it is the day following His death. Knowing that the high day is a reference to the day that began the festival and not a reference to the weekly Sabbath helps to establish that the preparation day mentioned in so many places throughout the crucifixion story is a reference to the preparation day for Passover and is not a reference to the sixth day of the week.
Cordially,
Jerry
----- Original Message -----
Hi again Jerry,
I had another comment made to me today that shows that in John 19:31 Christ was crucified on the day prior to the sabbath was a "high day".
"The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away."
He comments that he thought a "high sabbath" occurred when the festival sabbath fell on the weekly Sabbath.
Is that the correct conclusion? It doesn't fit with our thinking that the Passover or the Feast of Unleavened Bread fell on Saturday.
Thanks!
Bob